An Independent Summer

Just as things started to look up for one of the
youngest Division I programs and as things
started to look better for the youngest Division I coach in Dane Fife,
the summer of 2006 has been a trying time.

IPFW is seemingly on the verge of conference
affiliation with two spots opening up in the Mid-Continent Conference by
the start of the 2007-2008 season. But now, as summer workouts rage on
in Fort Wayne, Indiana,
the ever-changing roster continues to do just that and change. There
still are the familiar and solid faces like seniors Quintin Carouthers
and Justin Hawkins and juniors DeWitt Scott and Zeljko Egeric, but no
other Mastodon has seen more than a year of service in blue and white at
this school.

But there at the small forward, where Carouthers,
Hawkins and Scott are all fit best is where IPFW is clearly the
strongest. Their center Tyler Best (Lafayette, IN) had a mediocre junior
year plagued with injuries while Egeric (Split, Croatia) and
junior-to-be Armend Ademi (Pristina, Kosovo) have proven very little on
the Division I stage with a team who has only three players over 6'9''
and none taller than 6'10''.

Even worse, the team is currently very light in the
point guard position, which they were too deep in last season. Since the
end of a ten-win 2005-2006 campaign (the first double digit winning
season in the school's four year D1 history), the team has lost four
point guards. D.J. Posley (Chicago, IL), a high school teammate of
Kansas standout Julian Wright, transferred to a community college at the
end of his freshman season and starting point man Brad Pompey has also
recently left the team for undisclosed personal reasons.

While Posley only averaged 3.2 points and just around
13 minutes per contest, he did play significantly toward the end of the
season. Pompey averaged 28.4 minutes/game in his only season at IPFW,
averaging 8.7 points and leading the team with 55 assists.

Summertime has also brought about injuries with
sophomores-to-be Kyle Savely (Corydon, IN) and Jakari Johnson (Grand
Rapids, MI) nursing injured an injured wrist and thumb respectively.
Fife said that the two have an unknown return timetable.

So Fife has been forced to turn to the untested in
the form of freshman walk-on Keevan Miller (New Albany, IN - Providence
HS) to lead the way. Miller may even be the starter for the Mastodons
when the season rolls around this October. He has been in Fort Wayne
since June 12 working with the team and getting into the flow with the
fast-paced Mastodon squad that is on the brink of a major break with the
Mid-Continent conference, who's officials will visit the campus this
week.

IPFW has lost seven players from last year's opening
day roster. Pompey and Posley as previously mentioned, junior Mohamed
Esseghir left mid-season for personal reasons, freshmen walk-ons Brandon
Schumm and Andy Stroud were dismissed from the team mid-season, a third
walk-on Warren Wallace left this off season and senior-to-be Kevin
Nelson was recently dismissed from the team. Nelson was a red-shirt last
season after a move from Central Michigan where he was the team leading
scorer and MVP as a junior.

“I think our goal for these first two years is to get
the word out. We want to let people know who we are. I don’t ever want
to have to go somewhere out west and people ask who are we and if we are
Division I,” Fife said. “And that’s subsiding, but we just have to
market this and there are going to be some tough roads.”

Other players next season will include Miller, JuCo
recruits Pat Lepper and Jaraun "Keno" Burrows, freshman combo guard
Chris Perkins (Triton Central HS – Chicago, IL) and Demetrius Johnson,
who red shirted last season after transferring from Kent State. Burrows,
a native of the Bahamas, leads the incoming class as a NJCAA 2nd
Team All-American a year ago at in Volunteer State Community College in
Tennessee.

“It is unbelievable for us to get him. He is a high
level player who plays his butt off,” Fife said of Burrows.

Terry Jenkins (Muncie Central HS - Muncie, IN) will
also join the team as a walk-on. The team will also have two new
assistant coaches to replace Jermaine Kimbrough (Cleveland State) and
Joel Cotton (Anderson University) in Terry Johnson (formerly of Butler)
and Dan Bere, who served as a graduate assistant last season.

Their just released 2006-2007 schedule will be a
tough one for a still young team with trips to Notre Dame, Air Force,
Michigan State and Utah State. The team will also host Indiana State and
play home and home games with Valparaiso, IUPUI and Western Illinois.
Still, Fife seems upbeat about the program's chances of making a big run
this coming season and proving that he and IPFW belong playing with the
big boys.

“We take pride in feeling like we can beat these
teams and I think we showed it last year,” Fife said.

Last year, IPFW hung with Michigan State for much of
their contest, had a chance to beat Notre Dame at the buzzer and even
knocked off then 8-1 Indiana State in Terre Haute.

A decision about IPFW’s potential Mid-Continent
Conference future is expected before the season kicks off in November.
The conference officials officially visit IPFW from August 2-4 and then
will make visits with South Dakota State and North Dakota State in
August.

“It looks great, it really does and I think we are in
great shape.” Fife said about IPFW’s Mid-Con hopes. “We are pleased with
where we are at with our development.

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About Dan Vance

ColumnistMid-Con & Indiana Teams

Contactdan.vance@hotmail.com

Background

Dan is a former student at IPFW where he majored in Media and Public Communications with a minor in journalism. At IPFW, he spent five of his six semesters at the school paper as an Editor. Aside from his work with school publications, Dan has been a contributer at the Fort Wayne News Sentinel, MaxPreps.com and Overtime Sports Weekly, among others, and is the founder of Franchise Publications LLC. Dan is also a freshmen boys basketball coach at Fort Wayne North Side.